Applications are now closed.
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Overview
The Business Incubation and Commercialization Grant Program provides financial support to incubators and entrepreneurship organizations interested in creating business formation, innovation, and job creation in Toronto and who provide robust programming to new entrepreneurs, businesses and start-ups.
This program is designed to support not-for-profit entrepreneurship, incubation and accelerator activities whose primary goals are to create businesses and jobs, encourage the development of new ideas, and work towards organizational efficiency, sustainability and while utilizing industry best practices.
This program does not provide grants to individual for-profit businesses, but instead is aimed at not-for-profit organizations that offer entrepreneurship and incubation or acceleration programming to entrepreneurs. For more detail, refer to the program guidelines.
Objective
The Business Incubation and Commercialization Grant Program supports the development of entrepreneurship and incubation activity in a manner that is fully accessible, transparent and accountable and aligned with the City of Toronto’s goals of access, equity and inclusion.
Funding Available
There are two streams within the program offering funding:
- Multi-Year Operating (3-year cycle)
- Up to 20 per cent of eligible expenses, to a maximum of $100,000, for applicants in the multi-year operating stream. Grants will be dispensed in two parts: 75 per cent provided upfront and 25 per cent held back until completion.
- Programs and Events
- Up to 50 per cent of eligible expenses, to a maximum of $20,000, for programs. Program grants will be dispensed in two parts: 75 per cent provided upfront and 25 per cent held back until completion; or
- Up to 50 per cent of eligible expenses, to a maximum of $10,000, for events. Event grants will be dispensed in a one-time payment.
Annual operating, project, event or development funding received in one year does not guarantee funding in subsequent years.
Eligibility and Requirements
Eligibility
The Business Incubation and Commercialization Grant Program is available to the following types of not-for-profit organizations that provide incubation-type programming to entrepreneurs:
- Pre-Incubator: an organization that offers programming such as development of client’s business idea. Services typically include: business advisory support, mentoring, networking and market research.
- Incubator: an organization that adds programming such as implementation of a business idea into actual operation while providing various supports throughout the process, such as business advisory support, office or studio space, shared industrial/commercial equipment, product/prototype development, mentoring, networking and market research.
- Accelerator: an organization that focuses on rapid growth through the provision of strategic financing and market readiness strategies. Services typically include financing or investment, business advisory support, mentoring and office or studio space.
- Post-Secondary Education Institution: an academic institution that includes entrepreneurship and business support as part of its curriculum and programming, including campus-led incubators and accelerators. (Only eligible for the Programs and Events Stream and the number of provided grants is capped at four per academic institution.)
- Industry Association: an organization that represents a certain business sector and has a focus on entrepreneurship and sector development.
To be eligible for funding, not-for-profit organizations must also demonstrate:
- Programming that is Toronto-centric and support Toronto-based entrepreneurs and startups,
- Robust business incubation, acceleration and entrepreneurship programming,
- Detailed and comprehensive application and supporting documents, and
- Proof of Not-for Profit Status
Multi-Year Operating Stream Requirements
Applicant organizations must meet the following to be eligible for Multi-year Operating Stream:
- Have been incorporated for three years or more and have paid staff,
- Have programming tailored specifically to company formation and job creation,
- Demonstrate a history of successful entrepreneurship and robust incubation or accelerator programming for three years or more, and
- Be able to provide its most recent audited financial statements demonstrating revenues between $100,000 to $1 million.
Programs and Events Stream Requirements
Applicant organizations must meet the following to be eligible for the Programs and Events Stream:
- Have been incorporated for at least two years,
- Programming can cover a range of entrepreneurship and innovation development including pre-incubation, incubation and accelerator activities, as well as one-time or a series of networking events with targeted sectoral or demographical reach and impact,
- Demonstrate a history of successful entrepreneurship, campus entrepreneurship, or social enterprise programming, and
- Be able to provide a comprehensive budget for review with its application, demonstrating revenue of less than $100,000 for Programs or $50,000 for Events.
Ineligibility
For-profit incubators and individual businesses are ineligible to apply for or participate in the program.
Eligible organizations cannot:
- Be taking any equity from the start-ups it supports,
- Apply for or participate in more than one stream of funding per year, or
- Apply for new or additional grants if applicant is receiving funds through a multi-year agreement under previous program framework, until such time that their existing funding agreement has ended.
In addition, organizations receiving any other core funding from the City of Toronto are ineligible to apply for the Multi-year Operating Stream. However, these organizations may be eligible to apply for the smaller Programs and Events Stream depending on available funds.
Reporting
Please note that all grant recipients will have to demonstrate their program’s reach and impacts via a questionnaire issued at the end of each year. It will be the responsibility of the recipient to canvass the clients it has served as a result of the grant, to collect the data below and provide to the City of Toronto in aggregate form. No individual personal or private business information will be identified or shared.
Eligible organizations should carefully review the required metrics below and consider their organization’s capacity to collect them when deciding upon which funding stream to apply:
- Metrics for the Multi-Year Operating Stream and Program Stream: number of events, number of program queries, number of clients served, number of businesses formed, number of jobs created, client postal codes, participant demographic information and a list of companies served, including company names and website addresses
- Metrics for the Event Stream: number of events, number of participants, client postal codes and participant demographic information
How to Apply
Applications are now closed.
For those interested in applying for future rounds, please review the requirements and templates to prepare.
| Documents |
Multi-Year |
Programs |
Events |
| Not-for-profit Status |
required |
required |
required |
| Board of Directors/ Employee Compliment |
required |
required |
required |
| Audited Financial Statement |
required |
not applicable |
not applicable |
| Budget |
not applicable |
required |
required |
| Curriculum |
required |
required |
not applicable |
| Deliverables & Milestones |
required |
required |
not applicable |
Sample templates are available to help you better prepare your application:
Evaluation Process
Applications will be reviewed and scored by an assessment panel comprised of community advisors (where possible) and City staff. Applications will be assessed using the above noted criteria as well as a scoring system built on four key program priorities:
- Program Alignment
- Program Impact and Engagement
- Organizational Capacity
- Financial Sustainability
Please note that all decisions concerning eligibility and funding amounts are final.
For any questions about the Business Incubation and Commercialization Grant Program, please contact either:
